Car sales have peaked globally except in emerging markets like India and Africa, prompting Hyundai to invest heavily in India and BYD to expand EV charging in Africa. Renault's spin-off powertrain company, Horse, has rapidly grown to become the world's third-largest engine builder, saving billions in development costs. The Ford Maverick outsells the Hyundai Santa Cruz 10:1, attributed to its work truck appeal. Meanwhile, Europe faces a regulatory battle over plug-in hybrids, with environmental groups challenging their emissions claims. Other highlights include a lawsuit against Chinese automaker Neo for revenue inflation and a poor safety rating for the Don Pong Box EV from Euro NCAP.
Topics:global car sales trendshyundai investment in indiabyd ev charging in africahorse powertrain company growthford maverick vs hyundai santa cruz saleseu plug-in hybrid regulationsneo lawsuitdon pong box safety rating
- Hyundai Bets Big on India - BYD Building EV Fast Chargers in S. Africa - How Many Different 2-Liter Engines Do We Need? - Horse Is Now World’s #3 Engine Builder - Do Customers Want Gen AI in Cars? - Maverick Outsells Santa Cruz 10:1 - EU Battles Over PHEV Regs - Nio Sued for Financial Shenanigans - Dongeng BOX Does Poorly in Euro NCAP
"...s in the market. The Ford Maverick and the Hundai Santa Cruz. Well, here's how they're doing, and it isn't eve..."
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Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to all of you enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. As we've been
reporting here for some time, the auto industry has hit peak.
Auto car sales hit their peak around twenty seventeen and they have never recovered. The industry is selling fewer cars
than it did back then. That includes North and South America, Europe, Japan,
South Korea, and the Chinese domestic market. But there are
at least two places in the world where car sales could grow a lot, India and Africa. That's why Hyundai
is announcing it's investing five billion dollars in India for domestic sales and for exports. It's going to build twenty
seven different models there, including an electric suv developed entirely in India. Meanwhile, BYD is looking to invest in Africa,
but it doesn't plan to make any cars there, at least not yet. Instead, it's planning to build out an
ev charging infrastructure, with three hundred fast chargers going up in South Africa by the end of next year. BYDA
has been booming for the last five years, but this year sales are coming up short. The company desperately needs
to find new markets to kickstart its growth curve, and that's why it's making this move into Africa. You know,
it was a decade ago that Sergio Marcione, CEO of Fiat Chrysler, published a paper calling on GM, Ford and FCA to combine their powertrain operations. The paper was called
Confessions of a Capital Junkie, and Sergio said automakers were wasting billions by manufacturing engines and transmissions that were almost identical and were irrevolent to the majority of car buyers.
As one powertrain VP recently said many different two liter four cylinder engines does the world need? That's why two
years ago Renault spun off its powertrain operations into a separate company called Horse. Jili and Volvo quickly joined Horse,
and now it's building powertrains for Renault, Dacia, Volvo Cars, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Mercedes. Its growth has been spectacular. Reuter's reports that
Horse is now the third largest engine manufacturer in the world.
It made eight million engines and transmissions last year, raking in eight billion euros in revenue. That's expected to jump
eighty percent to fifteen billion euros by twenty thirty. Renault
says it will save two billion euros on engine development by twenty thirty thanks to offloading that development to horse and that kind of savings is going to catch the attention of a lot of car companies. By the way,
we're going to have an executive Fromhores on next week's out Ofline after hours. You're not going to want to
miss that one, and be sure to join us later today when we've got Kathy Risk from JD Power coming on the show to talk about all the generative AI going into cars. Do customers really want it? Or is
this just another example of automakers loading up their cars with technology that customers could care less about. Join me
and Gary and our colleague Perry Stern when we go live at three pm Eastern time.
Speaker 2: At CSP, we work with OEM engineers across the country on their journeys to lighter, safer, and more eco friendly vehicles.
Learn more at VCSP dot com.
Speaker 1: Earlier this week, we were reporting on Ram getting into the mid size pickup segment in the US, and we showed you a sales comparison of how all those pickups are doing. What we did not include in that chart
was the sale of the two compact pickups in the market.
The Ford Maverick and the Hundai Santa Cruz. Well, here's
how they're doing, and it isn't even closed. The Maverick
is out selling the Santa Cruz ten to one. There's
probably two reasons the Maverick's doing so well. First of all,
Ford is really good at trucks. Second, the Maverick is
more of a work truck. Well, the Santa Cruz is
more of a lifestyle vehicle, and I'd be willing to bet that the next generation of the Santa Cruz is going to be much more of a work truck. There's
a battle brewing in Europe over plug in hybrid vehicles.
Automakers are lobbying the EU to allow pebs to continue to be sold after twenty thirty five, when the EU wants to ban internal combustion engines, but the environmental group Transport Environment also known as t and E, wants the EU to reject that. According to a new report from
the group, Real World, plug in hybrid emissions are five times higher than their official numbers. That's because owners don't
charge them very often, which means the vehicles are running on their IC engine most of the time. T and
E also studied extended range electrics in China and found they've actually got some advantages over pheaves. Electric motors in
erevs are more powerful than their engines, which allows them to operate in electric only mode under heavy acceleration. Most
e revs have DC charging capability thanks to their larger batteries, something that most pheaves don't have, and e revs have longer electric only ranges compared to pheaves. The Chinese automaker
Neo has been lauded for its high tech cars and its batteries opping technology, but it may also have been involved in financial shenanigans. Neo is being sued by Singapore
Sovereign Wealth fund called GIC because it claims Neo artificially inflated its revenue. The lawsuit alleges that Neo directed its
battery subsidiary to purchase all the batteries that it uses for its swapping network, that allowed Neo to book those batteries as being sold even though it was sort of selling them to itself. GIC says that revenue should have
been recognized gradually, not all at once, and the wealth fund is seeking compensation for its stock market losses. And
reimbursement for its legal costs. Euro Encap, the organization that
crash tests and rates the safety of vehicles in Europe.
Just crash tested a new small electric hatchback from the Chinese automaker Don Pong called the Box and that it didn't like what it saw. During the frontal offset crash,
which replicates a car to car crash, multiple spot welds in the body structure popped open, and after the impact, the automatic door locking mechanism failed to unlock, which could make it difficult for first responders to get to the people inside. Other issues included a week steering wheel airbag
which meant the driver's head hit the wheel, and some parts of the dashboard structure posed a safety risk to front occupant's legs. The model also lacks anyway to prevent
occupant to occupant impact between those sitting in the front in the event of a side impact collision. And yet
even with all that, Euroencap still gave the Box a three star rating. But that was the lowest score of
the eighteen new vehicles that euro Endcap tested, and that brings us to the end of today's show. Remember to
join us for outline after hours as we've died, ive into all that jenn airon cars, and we'll be backed back here again tomorrow with Autoline Daily.
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